t and palatable but cannot be stored for any length of time and fail
to germinate well when planted.

The experimental study of chestnut storage problems is being continued
with the hope of working out still better methods. The manner of
marketing chestnuts so that they will reach the consumer in a desirable
condition also is still to be worked out, but it appears possible that
retail cold storage and packaging in moisture-proof bags which are
pervious to CO_{2} and O_{2} give promise at present. Probably the most
promising aid to an increased storage life of chestnuts will come
through the selection of trees for propagation and planting that produce
nuts of superior resistance to storage rots. There is rather great
variation among seedlings in this respect, some being-quite superior,
although no completely resistant seedlings have yet been found.

+Discussion and Conclusions+

The perishable nature of the nuts of the Chinese chestnut has probably
been the greatest drawback to an earlier acceptance of this crop as an
adjunct to the horticulture of the Southeast. It has been only in the
past few years that enough has been learned about the harvesting and
storage requirements to permit the storing of these chestnuts so that
they can be marketed in an orderly manner either for eating or for seed
purposes. Storage losses through periods up to six months have been held
to less than 10% for a mixture of nuts from all the trees at Philema.
Storage tests of nuts from individual trees have shown a range in
keeping quality from no loss after six months' storage to nearly 100%
loss. By culling out the trees producing nuts with a high rate of
spoilage under the best storage conditions it should be possible to
reduce storage losses to a minimum. Every grower of seedling trees
should follow this same process of culling out or topworking trees
producing nuts of poor keeping quality if the industry is to grow and
prosper, since otherwise the offering of spoiled nuts for sale to the
consumer will soon destroy the demand for the nuts.

There is no question but that the Chinese chestnut tree is very well
adapted to the Southeast. It has proven to be healthy, vigorous, and
productive. Yield records at Philema show actual yields of more than
1,000 pounds per acre and potential average annual yields of 1,500 or
more pounds per acre are not out of reason. In 1947, in the Brown tract
at Philema, if all the trees that bore nuts had been co